The 80 Plus Silver certification has only been awarded to three manufacturers

Efficiency has been a big issue in computers and power supplies for a while now with data centers and businesses trying to go green in an effort to help the environment. Businesses have realized that saving power in computer systems can equate to significant savings in power and electricity costs across an enterprise.

Cooler Master announced its latest power supply called the UCP 900W. The UCP portion of the product name stands for Ultimate Circuit Protection. The PSU is billed as the first high wattage PSU on the retail market to be awarded the 80 Plus Silver Certification.

The 80 Plus Silver Certification verifies independently that the PSU is capable of 85% efficiency at 20% loading, 88% efficiency at 50% loading and 85% efficiency at 100% loading. Only three companies have been awarded the 80 Plus Silver certification: Dell, NXP Semiconductors and Cooler Master. Cooler Master is the only retail manufacturer that will be selling an 80 Plus Silver certified PSU to consumers directly.

The tests on the UCP 900W PSU found that the typical efficiency of the PSU at 50% load is 88.14% and the average efficiency overall is 86.52%. A Cooler Master spokesman told DailyTech, “it's [ the USP 900W] not the first 80+ Silver certified PSU, but the first retail PSU in the market which received the silver award from 80+ Silver.”

IBM has recognized that saving power and being more efficient can save significant amounts of money for enterprises and has introduced liquid cooled super computers able to run at room air.

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